Source: Latest Content - ELLE
TikTok's book recommendation engine has become so efficient at surfacing viral titles that it has narrowed rather than expanded what people actually read. When BookTok makes one book unavoidable—*It Ends With Us* or *Fourth Wing*—publishers rush to capitalize with similar covers and tropes, creating a self-reinforcing cycle where algorithms reward conformity. Readers face less real choice despite infinite scrolling. The algorithm's power to make something go viral is the same power that kills everything else.